My son is in 1st grade, reading well (actually really well, in my opinion). He learned how to read using Hooked on Phonics. It was a very good start and then he went on to kindergarten and learned so much there.
Bob's books were a big fail for us. I was trying to teach him how to sound the words but he didn't get it until he watched Hooked on Phonics. Before HoP, we also tried one app. I think it was how to teach your monster how to read. He spent more time trying to move the monster than sounding the words. Big fail for us. So now, daughter will go into kindergarten. I thought she would be able to use HoP. She just memorized the video order of the sounds (mat, cat and etc) so it's not like she's reading. If I sound it with her, she can do it... but she won't do it by herself. Any suggestions? Any other programs? Doesn't have to be free but i hope it can help my daughter. Bob's books: fail x 2
for us 
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I’m doing the same with my 4 year old. We did use HOP, but it wasn’t wildly successful. I used a game called Blah Blah Blah from Mrs. Wordsmith, which is like uno with word sounds (you can match the first, middle, or last sound). My 4 year old loves it! There are 3 levels and we have moved to the second (here they include blends and long vowel pairs. I’m assuming the third level includes final E and other strange letter combinations). Then we used their sight word program, too, combined with just playing memory with sight words.
He loved these for learning CVC words. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/CVC-Sliders-788303#
And also this to master vowel sounds.
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https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985
We used this book for my daughter the spring before we entered Kindergarten and she moved onto chapter books after she entered kindergarten bc the concepts in this book helped her transition to bigger and longer words. She's currently in first grade and is reading at a 4th grade level.
I don't have any other experience outside of my girl but a friend used this successfully with all 4 of her kids.
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We’ve been using a website called Reading Eggs and it’s helping my 5 year old a ton! I think there’s a free 30 day trial right now but if not wall me and I can send you a link for one. He hates doing anything he thinks is educational but it’s fun enough that he really enjoys it and he works on it a little everyday. It starts with a lesson on a letter sound and then there are like 8-10 activities / games to reinforce that sound. Once completing a “lesson” of 8-10 things they earn an egg that hatches into a critter.
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I like Zingo and Bananagrams for a hands on way to put words together. Also Endless Alphabet is a good app.
Jack Hartman has some good phonics videos, too.
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I second Reading Eggs! It costs money but it helped my daughter a lot as well as many of my friends’ children.
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We used the same book as @misolee: with my 4 year old and it worked great!
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I like the Endless Alphabet and Endless Wordplay games for practicing sounds. Also the shows the Letter Factory and the Talking Words Factory
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We use Reading Eggs too! We also just started with Duolingo ABC, which is free.
I do think reading isn't something to truly worry about at young ages. Finland has the highest performing students in the world, and they don't begin formal reading instruction until 7. I've read studies that show that early reading does not increase academic performance at later grades--there is a short term boost that levels out at around third grade.
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So we have used the Bob books with good success with both kids, but they both knew all the Keter sounds before starting with those. My 4 year old is just on the second set now, but last night she accidentally pulled one from the “first grade” set and was able to read it (of course, needing to sound out a lot of blends she’s never seen before since she skipped several sets).
In my limited experience with my older one, it’s just a long slog. I have her read 1 book a night (I don’t care if it’s short or long, I don’t Time it and don’t care if she reads a book for 3 minutes or 10 minutes and I’ve always let the kids repeat books as much as they want, since that’s good for fluency.)
Now my 4 year old has had to read book a night, too (usually just a BOB book, but sometimes another beginner reader.
Neither of my kids have had a sudden big jump on literacy, it’s always been a slow daily/weekly/monthly progression. But my 1st grader is reading at 3rd grade level and I suspect by the time my 4 year old starts K in Sept, she’ll test as end of K/beginning of 1st.
Just keep plugging along with any program and I think they’ll get there. I don’t actually do any direct instruction at home, other than the nighttime routine of them reading to me, and me reading to them.
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Thanks everyone. I signed her up for Reading Eggs and she likes it. She watched Letter Factory so many times (and she knows what sound each letter makes). Talking Worlds Factory, not as catchy... so never followed.
It's a bit like she can say the M says 'mmm'. But then if she sees a monkey and she sees the M she won't know how to sound it... We'll keep working on it and I'll read more to her.
Thanks for the book suggestion. I will buy it!
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